2023 • Vertical
Rated: R
Length: 1 hr 30min
Action ~ Crime ~ Drama ~ Romance ~ Thriller
Director: Phillip Noyce
Writer: Screenplay by Richard Wenk.
Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Morena Baccarin and James Caan.
Keep your friends close and your enemies dead.
Official Trailer
The Book
Fast Charlie (2023) is based on the novel Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler published December 2001.
Charlie Swift is an old school kind of guy. Runs a tight ship. Respects his boss. Takes care of his mom and kid brother. And, he’s a stone cold killer. When a fancy new-wave hood, hungry for the primo Orlando territory Charlie enforces, offs most of Charlie’s boys in a bloody mob takeover, our man steps in to make things right. But when word gets out that his boss has gone missing and there’s a traitor among his crew of gun monkeys, Charlie knows payback ain’t gonna be easy. Shot up, boozed up, and beaten up, Charlie finds the toughest challenge he’s ever had to face isn’t snuffing out life, but preserving it.
Fast Charlie (2023) – Review
Charlie Swift (Pierce Brosnan), aka Fast Charlie, is an experienced hitman working for a longtime mob boss named Stan (James Caan). Charlie is sent on a job with newbie Blade to take out a man named Rollo. Blade has planted a bomb in a box of doughnuts thinking it a genius idea, but things go wrong when the box detonates and blows Rollo’s head to smithereens. Without Rolo’s head it is impossible for Charlie to prove to the sanction of the hit, Beggar Mercado, that the hit was successful. To solve this problem, Fast Charlie enlists the help of Marcie Kramer (Morena Baccarin), who is Rollo’s tough and calm ex-wife. She confirms the body by recognizing a tattoo, and now he has to figure out a way to convince Beggar that Rollo is dead.
Meanwhile, the young and reckless new hitman named Blade has decided to turn on Fast Charlie and take the body and blackmail Beggar with it. When Blade dies in a chaotic accident trying to get away in Charlie’s car, Charlie cuts off Blade’s head and works with Marcie to transfer the tattoo onto Blade’s body so they can pass it off as Rollo’s, faking the proof Beggar needs. When Fast Charlie meets Beggar with the body, he takes the bait convinced it is Rollo, and promptly chucks the body into the swamp and the alligators. He tells Charlie that he wants to meet with his boss Stan, and discuss business. When Charlie tells Stan, he tells Charlie that he wants nothing to do with Beggar…..
Which starts off a chain reaction of action and violence as Beggar tries to dominate Stan’s turf and business. Fast Charlie is apparently the only man standing as Beggar tries to wipe out Stan’s crew, but Fast Charlie and Marcie team up to outwit Beggar and his crew. And what follows is non stop action, violence, dark comedy and romance as Charlie and Marcie fight for their lives and fall in love with each other. It is a bit of Pulp Fiction, The Equalizer and The Mechanic all rolled into one. Not too surprising since Richard Wenk wrote this as well as the screenplay for The Mechanic and The Equalizer Movies.
James Caan plays the part of aging Crime Boss Stan very well. Too well, this was James Caan‘s last acting role before he passed away several months later on July 6, 2022. He was 82 years old. Pierce Brosnan did a fantastic job of playing Fast Charlie right down to the accent. Brilliant work! The chemistry between Pierce and Morena felt very natural and engaging, and made the obvious age gap between them seem like nothing t’all. I really liked Morena in this, she is quickly becoming a Streaming Movie Night favorite! She also appears in 2020’s Greenland, the upcoming Sequel Greenland: Migration and Elevation.
I thought this movie was a great little gem! It checks all the boxes for me personally and it was good to see James Caan in his last role. Pierce Brosnan and Morena Baccarin make a fantastic team on screen, and it was a great ride watching them battle it out and fall in love.
Turn off the lights and devices,
Make some popcorn
Grab a beverage
and Stream Fast Charlie!
Fast Charlie (2023) – Review by Bobby @ Streaming Movie Night.
Movie Stills
Fast Charlie (2023) – Review © 2025 Streaming Movie Night
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